Scopwick & Kirkby Green Parish Council News Winter 2011

It is interesting how often the Parish makes the local news. Last winter Look North called on Scopwick Garage on a couple of occasions to comment on the state of the roads. Then Escape to The Country filmed in and around the village and the programme has been shown at least twice on National television.

Recently Look North returned again to the village with a reporter and a representative of the Environment Agency standing in the dried up bed of the Beck to emphasise the continuing effect of the long dry Spring and that a Drought Order remains in place. The occasional downpours during the Summer have done nothing to replace the ground water feeding the springs that normally provide the Beck with a continuing water supply.

Recent enquiries to the Environment Agency from the Parish Council have confirmed that water extraction by the local landowners is being monitored and used responsibly.
Licence 4/30/09/*G/0011 is to the west of the village whilst licence 4/30/09/*G/0128 is to the east. Both licences have conditions which protect the environment. In fact this year abstraction ceased at the Scopwick sites before the licence conditions were reached. No abstraction has taken place from the boreholes since August 4. The majority of abstraction had actually finished by the end of June due to the wetter summer months.

The big and very obvious disruption at the moment is the removal of overhead electricity supply lines along Main Street and Springfield in Scopwick and replacing them with an underground supply. The work isprogressive and will take some months. The improvement to the look of the village should be considerable.

As always with a job of this size there are coordination problems; Western Power is relaying the cables, the County Council is responsible for putting up new footpath lamp standards, NKDC is responsible for the actual footpath lamps, and BT look after the telephone lines. Enquiries by the Parish Council so far have been satisfactorily answered but there are still questions as to what will happen with the telephone lines.

Residents will have noticed the blue spray paint applied by the BT Plant Protection Officer that shows the other contractors where there are underground BT services. However, it is clear that BT has not yet formed a plan as to what it will do with the existing overhead supply lines. This will be monitored by the Parish Council.

EVENTS
3 Dec - Holy Cross Christmas tree festival
10 Dec - Village Hall Xmas Draw and Market.